Testing of Servant Leadership and Voter Commitment Relationship from the Perspective of a Developing Democracy: Sample of Turkiye TRB-1 Region

This study was conducted because the interaction between servant leadership and voter commitment had not yet been discussed in the literature. Voter commitment is explained not only by variables such as party organization, stability, coherence, group membership, values, economic welfare, but also by leader characteristics and confidence in the leader. Such premises stipulated for developed democracies can be replaced with religion-based discourses, repressive practices and policies based on ethnicity in developing democracies. Regarding this picture as an incomplete puzzle; this study aims to find a piece of the puzzle by searching for an experimental evidence to explain the relationship between servant leadership and voter commitment in developing democracies. Voter commitment premises that are present in developed democracies are open to dispute in developing democracies. Consequently, the status of these premises in developing countries is discussed in this paper. In order to fulfill the aim of the study, a quantitative research design was used. This study focused on the influences of certain variables on one another and thus a correlational (relational) research design was used. The study population consisted of 554.618 voters living within the central municipalities of provinces located in the TRB1 region of Turkey. A sample of 1616 voters was randomly selected from the population, and surveyed via a questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic factors and scales measuring servant leadership and voter commitment, which were developed and adapted by the researchers. To conclude, it was found that servant leadership has a moderately strong and positive impact on voter commitment. The influence of servant leadership on attitudinal voter commitment is more powerful than on behavioral voter commitment. The influence of the empowering dimension of servant leadership is the most important factor on both of voter commitment dimensions. Contrary to the expectations arising from the features of the region and the country, voter commitment was found on moderate level. Contrary to the expectations in the literature, the impact of trust on voter commitment was found insignificant.